Following the Formula in Beowulf, Örvar-Odds saga, and Tolkien

Following the Formula in Beowulf, Örvar-Odds saga, and Tolkien proposes that Beowulf was composed according to a formula. Michael Fox imagines the process that generated the poem and provides a model for reading it, extending this model to investigate formula in a half-line, a fitt, a digression, and a story-pattern or folktale, including the Old-Norse Icelandic Ö rvar-Odds saga . Fox also explores how J. R. R. Tolkien used the same formula to write Sellic Spell and The Hobbit . This investigation uncovers relationships between oral and literate composition, between mechanistic composition and author, and between listening and reading audiences, arguing for a contemporary relevance for Beowulf in thinking about the creative process.